And we're in for another exciting evening of leftovers, frozen yogurt and tv. Being the parent of a 4-month-old is a never ending roller coaster of excitement!
We made it through another work week. Jayden has gotten much better at daycare; he takes 1 to 2 hour naps now, and is only eating three times a day (instead of the four he was sometimes going for in the first two weeks). Plus he's getting to know Julia so much better; he giggles and laughs with her and definitely feels more comfortable with her. She is also able to soothe him much more easily, which helps with the whole eating thing.
Unfortunately none of this has helped with his sleeping. He wakes up 4-5 times a night. A typical evening goes something like this: to bed between 7:30 and 8:30 pm. Awake between 11:30 pm and 12:30 am, for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. Back to bed until between 2:30 and 3:30 am, when he wakes up and is up for another 30 minutes to an hour. Back to bed until 4 or 4:30; awake for 20-40 minutes. Back to bed until 5 or 5:30, when we either just get him up or bring him to bed with us, where he'll sleep until 7:00 am or so. It's murder on me and Carmen - and I actually think it wears Jayden out as well. I'm surviving on 4-5 hours of sleep usually. And yesterday I felt as close to sick (achy, overheated, slightly sore throat, etc.) as I've felt in a long time. I am not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me; I do realize this is part of the joy of having a child. :)
Last night was no exception; the only difference was that he didn't eat at all! He really wasn't hungry - the only time he tried to nurse was when he was in my lap and wanted to be calmed down. But I was able to calm him by rocking him, singing to him and using the pacifier. If he is able to go the whole night without eating, it will make my life much easier.
Oh - the reason he's waking up so much, as far as we can tell, is that he's teething like crazy. We had our four month check up on Monday and the doctor pointed out that his teeth are easily visible in his gums. I had kind of thought I could see teeth, but I wasn't sure if his gums just looked like that or what. But yeah, he's clearly teething. So last night I gave him tylenol the first time he woke up and it did allow him to sleep for about 2-1/2 to 3 hours in the second segment, which is more than usual. Tonight we might try teething gel and/or some more tylenol. I just want the teeth to pop through already!
Advance warning: the next section may be too much information for some people, especially those who don't know me so well and those who are not women. :)
Pumping sucks. I didn't mind it so much when I only had to pump in the middle of the night and it allowed me to build up a frozen supply and allowed Carmen to feed Jayden in the middle of the night. But now that I'm pumping so that he can remain breastfed while I'm at work, it's incredibly stressful. Especially the first two weeks when Julia was feeding Jayden every couple of hours and kept increasing the amount of milk she was feeding him. There was one day where she fed him something like 30 ounces. Generally they say a four-month-old should eat about 6 times in a 24-hour period, about 6-7 ounces per feeding. So, that's 30-40 ounces per 24 hours. When Julia was feeding him close to 30 ounces, that meant Jayden was probably eating a solid 50+ ounces a day! So insane. Luckily we've now regulated and she feeds him 21-24 ounces.
Unfortunately for me, my body cannot pump that much during the day - I pump probably 12-15 ounces while I'm at work. Something about being stressed out, and my body just not responding to the pump the way it responds to Jayden. So I pump in the middle of the night, every night, to make up the deficit. Your body produces the most milk between 1 am and 5 am, so pumping around 3 or 4 am is ideal. Unfortunately Jayden does not always allow me to pump at the "ideal" time, but I do my best. I've tried everything - I take one of Jayden's blankets with me to work, I keep a selection of photos of Jayden at my desk, I take deep breaths while pumping, I listen to music, I focus on work (to keep my mind off the pumping), and nothing has really increased my ability to pump to the point that I need it to be.
Over the past week I've started taking these herbal supplements - teas and pills - that are supposed to help increase my milk supply. I don't know if they're working or not, but it seems like I'm producing a little bit more.
There are all kinds of settings you can put a breast pump on so that it can pull harder, squeeze harder, etc. I had noticed that pumping had been hurting me more recently than ever before, but figured it was just because I was having to pump 4-5 times a day. BUT. Last night, at 3:30 am no less, I discovered that I had moved one of the settings up higher than before. I moved it back down and I was able to get 7 ounces in one session, more than I'd been able to get in a while. We'll see what happens when I go back to work on Tuesday and if it helps me get more milk per session.
Pictures to come in the next post.
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